Still Here
by Carrie Underwood Fan
Summary: My take and minor changes from 15x01 "Surrender Benson". Elliot comes back to help Olivia through the after-math of her attack. Will they finally realize years of underlying feelings? E/O eventually!


_**Hi everyone! Okay so it has been a long, long, LONG time since I wrote any sort of fan fiction and until this very chapter was written I've never written anything SVU related. Grey's Anatomy was always my forte back in the day ;) But this story has been looming in my head basically since the season fourteen finale and I just had my thoughts on paper (or on a Word doc in this case lol). So you've been forewarned, its been quite awhile since I've written a story and this is my first time writing Olivia and Elliot. So be nice guys! One last thing- I've made some minor changes and they are as followed- Olivia was raped by Lewis, ( I know I know- but I promise there is a reason I did this) Cassidy is still off the radar and won't be coming back and lastly Eli wasn't Elliot's and he and Kathy eventually got divorced after Season 12. So with all of that in mind- remember these characters don't belong to me! They belong to Dick and Warren. Happy reading!**_

She felt her heart in her throat as she watched Lewis's body lay in a heap at her feet. His eye had already begun to swell and both sides of his face were bashed in pretty severely. Blood was still dripping from his nose where it hadn't already clotted and his head lay contorted in a way that made her think his collar bone was broken. She dropped the piece of the bedpost to the ground and slowly approached the small mirror she saw by the window. She knew what she was going to see. She'd been drugged, she reeked of alcohol and could feel bruises practically everywhere on her body. She felt her throat tighten as she took in her appearance. There was a gash on the side of her forehead, her entire face was glistening with sweat mixed with dirt and blood. Her hair was in its natural wavy state but was clumped and matted with blood. She raised her arm to touch her face and winced as her arm screamed at her in protest. She cursed to herself slightly as she moved her arm back down and tried to hold it in place. Her pants were ripped and were stained with blood. She felt her eyes pool with tears as she realized what had happened. She had been raped she was a victim.

She glanced around the room. She knew her phone had left in pieces at her apartment but she had seen a phone somewhere around here. She walked through the bedroom to the kitchen and found nothing. She walked through the hallway and that's when she saw Lewis's phone sitting there, laying on the side table. She quickly grabbed it and held it in her hands. This was going to be over. She'd call Amaro and he'd have an entire team here within minutes.

Except when her fingers unlocked the phone and she began to dial, she wasn't calling him and she didn't know why. She dialed a number she'd memorized years ago. A number that hadn't picked up every time she called two years ago after he had up and quit after Jenna had died. A number that had probably been changed. She debated hanging up right then and there and felt her hand move to end the call when she heard the opposite end click and then answer.

"Hello?" his voice answered quickly and out of breath.

"El?" her voice hoarse from the entire ordeal, her words slurring slightly at the entire ordeal her body had been put through. "Elliot? Can you hear me?"

"Liv I can hear you, don't hang up. I saw the news, practically all of the NYPD is looking for you. Where are you?" he replied as she heard him shuffling him around.

"I don't know." she replied as she furiously wiped the tears she felt falling from her eyes. "Somewhere out on Long Island I think. I can't tell. I need… El I…" as she felt her breath quicken. She could barely process all of this. Her ex-partner, her former best friend knew what was going on. And he sounded concerned. Like he cared. Not like what Lewis had told her hours earlier as she was held hostage. The words that had stung like a bullet through her chest.

"Okay don't try and leave. Stay where you are. Your attacker… is he alive?" he asked as she heard a car engine being started in the background. "Where is he?"

"I… I don't know if he's alive. I… I fought him off. He's unconscious… but I don't know if…" she started as her voice practically gave out and was starting to give in to the emotion she felt bubbling in her throat.

"Okay.. okay. Olivia listen to me, you did a good job. You know that and everyone else will know that. As long as you're safe it doesn't matter. I'm heading toward the prescient right now. I'm going to find Cragen and your team and we're going to come and find you. Okay?

She felt more tears slip as she heard him say "_we"_. He was coming too. He wasn't going to just pass this information along and make sure she was found. He was coming to get her and make sure she was safe.

"Okay."

* * *

He hadn't been allowed in. Because he wasn't apart of the Special Victims Team anymore. He was just a regular guy. Finn had practically had to restrain him from pouncing on the Captain when he had less than kindly reminded Elliot of that fact. So there he stood outside waiting with a bunch of other cops and some EMS. He had seen a blonde- Finn's new partner he'd been told come out, along with Finn as they followed a gurney with Olivia's attacker.

The guy was lucky Olivia had basically bashed his skull in, because if he had come out conscious, Elliot was pretty sure he would have been the one to cause all hell to break loose. Cragen had followed shortly after the two detectives and he told EMS that Olivia was to follow with her partner who had gone in to get her.

He had felt his stomach turn as he heard Cragen address Olivia to the paramedics as "the victim". But that's what she was. A victim. A woman who had been attacked in her own home, kidnapped and then raped and brutally assaulted. He had seen countless victims over the years been he never thought that Olivia would end up one.

He glanced up towards the house as he saw movement and then Detective Amaro emerge from the house. He expected to see Olivia following, probably insisting she was fine and not looking to cause a scene. But he held his gaze and waited and Olivia didn't follow. He glanced at Finn who had also looked up and simply shrugged his shoulders. He watched as the young detective walked up to him looking defeated.

"I can't get her to come out. She's not moving. I've tried talking to her, assured her there isn't press outside and that she's safe but… I don't know what else to do. I know you guys aren't on the best of terms but… she needs to get checked out." Nick admitted clearly embarrassed that he couldn't get through to his partner of almost two years.

Elliot nodded clapping his hand against the younger man's shoulder as he jogged towards the house, practically pushing past the police officers exiting the house with evidence. His scanned the entry way and he quickly walked towards the bedroom, noting the glass and blood everywhere. It was then that he saw her sitting in a folded chair that someone had found wrapped and wrapped in a thermal blanket that Amaro had brought in with him.

"Hi" he breathed. He watched as her eyes that had been previously glued to her hands glance up towards him. He slowly approached her not wanting to spook her, but when he saw that she didn't seem bothered by his presence he quickened his pace and then kneeled in front of the chair. "We need to get you out of here. Get that cut stitched up and you checked out." he said with as strong of a voice as he could, his voice threatening to break at every word at just seeing the sight of her.

He watched as she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, clearly not liking the fact that she was so exposed in front of him. So raw and open. She shook her head slowly, swiping at her eyes that were glassy with emotion. He sighed as he reached for her hand slowly.

"Liv we need to leave."

"No." she responded with a lot more force than he expected for someone who had just gone through what she had. "I can't. I can't leave."

"Yes you can. There isn't press out there. It's just Finn, Cragen and those two rookies detectives you guys have filled my place with." He said with a slight smirk trying to lighten the mood. "Its all people that care about you live. You can do this."

She shook her head furiously as tears spilled from her eyes, and she once again swiped at them furiously. He was watching her every move, he knew it was only a matter of moments or something he said that would send her over the edge and push her into her breaking point. She was always trying to be brave and that was something he had always hated and loved about her.

"If I go out there, all of this is real. All of this happened." she said shaking her head in bewilderment at herself realizing how ridiculous she sounded. "And yeah he'll go to jail and I'll get better but… this will all be real." She nearly whispered as she sniffed back the tears that were still threatening at the corners of her eyes.

He sighed as he slowly moved his hand to her face, recoiling slightly as she winced as he placed his hand flat against her cheek. Her brown orbs locked eyes with his. But they weren't bright and cheerful like he remembered them, they were dark and closed off.

"I know this is scary. And I know the thought of going out there is scary. But I promise you, you can get through this. Because you are the strongest person I know." he practically whispered to her as his index finger gently stroked her cheek. "And I'm not going to leave you. I will be there the whole time."

Never in the whole span of their partnership had they been this intimate and close. They were just supposed to be partners, best friends. Have each other's back. But at the end of the day that was supposed to be it. But throughout that whole time, there had been something else bubbling, threatening to explode. A powerful force. Only something that two people that knew each other so well shared. People that cared about each other beyond something those words could explain.

"You already left me." She practically spat out, her voice shaking as she finally said the words she'd wanted to say for the past two years. "You'll leave again. Everyone leaves. I naturally draw people to leave." she said as more tears spilled past her eyes.

"I know I did." He said as his other hand found its way to her leg and squeezed it gently. " And I'm so sorry I did. And that I couldn't return your calls. I wanted to Liv, you have to believe me that I did. But I'm not going to go anywhere if we go outside. I'm not going to leave you."

She closed her eyes as she felt more and more hot tears rushing down her cheeks. She was trying to remain in control, trying to not break in front of her former partner, but it was becoming increasingly harder by the second.

"Why did you leave me?"

He sighed as brushed the tears off her face. He knew this was her way of slowly opening back up to him. Her way of letting her guard down by putting up this strong front.

"Because you are the strongest person I know. And I'm not. I couldn't keep doing what we were doing everyday. And I knew you would be okay. Because you're you." He said trying to formulate everything he had wanted to say so many times when he'd seen her name flash across his phone.

She sighed as once again locked eyes with him. She knew this hard for him too. He didn't open up to people anymore easily then she did. She knew he meant what he said about wanting to explain himself before this. She knew this because she knew him. And no matter how many years had passed, he was still "El" and she was still "Liv" and she still knew his every move. She moved to stand from the chair, and watched as his hand dropped from her cheek as he stood up to help her. She winced slightly at the pain radiating from practically every place of her body. She leaned against him as he put her arm around and continued to lead her back through the hall way and towards the exit.

She stopped slightly as she saw all the lights of the ambulance and police cars glaring at her from a distance. He glanced towards her and watched her taking in a shaky breath. He leaned his face close to her ear, careful not bump against her and squeezed her hand gently.

"I'm right here."

_**Well that's Chapter 1! Reviews make my day =)**_


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